Kandragon: This chapter has long been in the works, and part of the overall outline. A plague was always going to come upon Windfall (it has been here for several chapters, before the global pandemic ever took its first breath). Alysse's death was planned as well, though only in later stages. For awhile, it was Nan who died or was blinded, but Smashy convinced me not to do either. For me, this is a case of killing your darlings, and realizing that the story is stronger along this route, despite how hard it is to take.

Blessings. And may Ruuya stopglaringatmelikeshewantstostabmethroughtheheart. Yikes.

The warm earthy fumes of coffee awoke Ruuya the next day with a start. Her neck ached, her body more so, and she had, apparently, fallen asleep with her head pulled on top of her arms after resting them, "just for a moment", on the long table in the mixing room.

From the sunlight streaming through the windows, it had not been one moment, but several. Her eyes flicked to the clock, it...it read ten. Ten in the damn morning and she wasn't half-done with carving the spell-

A hand, strong but gentle, squeezed her shoulder through the thick wool of a familiar light blue cape trimmed with white. "Tea or coffee, Ruuya?" Bazz asked, holding out a mug. "Do not say ale. I frankly doubt this village has another drop of it."

"But…"

Cold magic sprinkled from his fingers, producing a small spout of water that went up instead of down for a brief moment. Right. Water Mage. He couldn't purify a whole river by himself, but a pot of hot water was an easy enough task. Thus the two kettles of steaming water on the table.

"Coffee." Like she had drank in the desert. Tea...tea reminded her too much of studying with Alysse late at night. Languages and history and even a bit of magic… Then she noticed the other very off thing: the all but empty table. "Where is the staff?"

"Aryn is feeling better this morning," he answered. The journeyman woodworker, she recalled. "And Vaati, in a show of 'kindness', thought it best to let you sleep."

"And neither of you thought it good to try and move me?" She stretched, cape flaring to the side. Damn, these things were awkward. Or maybe they were just awkward on her. On Vaati, they looked dramatic, on Bazz, heroic. She removed it from her shoulders, folded it, and placed the roll of light blue on the table. For a brief moment, the Zora frowned. "Tables are uncomfortable."

"After the third kick?"

Kick? She kicked in her sleep?

"You even tried to bite Vaati's finger off."

She couldn't help it. She laughed at that. If only she had been awake for it. "So, self-preservation, not kindness."

He handed her a warm cup of dark brew, notably not asking or considering if she wanted anything extra in it. She nearly asked for sugar, having gotten used to drinking it sweetened since coming east, but then thought better of it. She deserved only to drink it as her sisters had taught her.

"Let the sleeping walrus lie, as the saying goes," he replied. Ruuya cocked an eyebrow. "Or seals as well, I suppose."

"Where is the old wart anyway?" she asked, lowering the mug to the table. "Still asleep?"

"Hardly," Vaati said, strutting into the potions room, staff in hand and Nan, holding a plate stacked full of steaming pastries, behind him. "I see that you've finally decided to wake. Did you relish the night drooling on my table?"

She glared. He stared back impassively.

"Joshua has sent us breakfast," he said with a nod towards Nan, "and the final ingredient our spell needs…"

Ruuya picked up one of the pastries and took a bite. "Pied...meat?" she examined the ground beef with small chunks of carrots suspiciously. "We need special food to make it work?"

The Zora shook his head, not bothering to take any of the proffered food. "No," Bazz said, short and stiff, then his eyes flashed to Vaati. "My lord, to assume that...it is Nan who has inherited that trait and not one of the babes, is preposterous. She has never shown a hint of…"

"Exactly." Vaati grinned, tilting his head ever so slightly as if he were looking down upon them all despite being the shortest present. "But there are exceptions to that rule."

"One exception. One, Vaati. Are you willing to bet this on the off-chance…"

"You seemed to."

"I am not the one who wrote the spell."

"If we had used mine, we could have used your power to fuel the magic."

"And how strong do you think I am?"

"I don't mind sacrificing the life of a minion for the rest-"

Suddenly, Bazz leveled his at the wind sorcerer's throat, forcing his head up, gaze as sharp as the tip of its silvery blade. "I am not Flow," Bazz replied, cold steel laced into his tone. "Do not bet on us all being fine enough people to die for the sake of the rest, or worse, your nebulous plans. I have other goals in mind, and they do not involve needless sacrifice."

Vaati met the Zora's furious glare with wide eyes. The paling of his knuckles around the staff and the curling of his other hand belied the panic instilled by the ancient warrior. He took a careful, measured step back.

But the spearhead followed.

Bazz's unerring lunge sent Vaati back further until, at last, his bum rammed against the table. There, the sorcerer leaned his neck as far back as he could, the edge of his lips twitching in a sneer. Panic and anger visibly warred on his face, and had there been the slightest bit of leeway, Ruuya had no doubt the old voe would be spitting disparaging remarks about traitors, fools, and disrespect.

His eyes flew to Ruuya. Between a blade and a hard place, he sought sanctuary.

She shrugged. As if she could stop a Zora in the midst of his rage.

"It was me who wrote the spell," Ruuya said, finishing off her second pastry and taking yet another. After all the things that had occurred, seeing Vaati like this was...entertaining to say the least. He deserved his secrets spilled after talking down to her and the rest of the village behind their backs for so long. "I...it felt right. You don't have to kill him. He can't fight back."

There was a moment of silence and stillness, broken only by her chewing. Vaati narrowed his gaze to a glare, his sneer on full display. A traitor once, a traitor forever.

She could almost imagine pinpricks of magic on her skin, a slight dampness to the air. Then, the Zora drew back his spear and Vaati caught his breath.

He absently rubbed at his throat. "You insolent little f̴́͂o̸͒̆x̶̑͝-"

Her eyes widened. What...what the hell was...

"So," Nan interjected, grabbing her own pie off the plate and taking a giant bite. "You can't use magic."

Vaati whirled on her. "Yes I can, you fool girl! Were you not your mother's daughter I would strike you down here and now!"

Bazz raised his spear-

"You're lying." Nan huffed.

"Mind your tongue-"

"Otherwise, you'd be able to fix all this yourself."

Vaati shook his head. To the side, Bazz lowered his weapon, and watched. "Don't be absurd, child," Vaati said, stepping into his grand sorcerer persona. "I am the almighty mage of wind and shadow, the mirror of our dearly departed Alysse. My magic is incapable with the intent behind this spell, and would be unable to fuel it-"

"But you didn't stop Bazz," Nan countered. Ruuya finished her third pastry. Delicious. She wasn't sure which was tastier: it or the turn of events. "You were afraid he might kill you. Like, so terrified you might have soiled your tunic."

"He is the captain of Windfall's guard," he riposted. "None have challenged him and succeeded."

"Give it up, Vaati," Ruuya said. Oh, this pie had a kick of spice to it. She would have to give Joshua her compliments later. "They know. Show them, try to tap your power."

Baring his fangs, he let out a furious hiss, sinister enough for a snake about to strike. Even as the Zora's hand tightened briefly on the shaft of his spear, he did not draw back.

Snakes did not scare her. She had faced an undead guardian of a long forgotten temple steeped in poison this last month. Vaati? Vaati was nothing. "What was it you said to me when we first met?" she asked casually. "To stone with you? The little light that appeared around your wrist was so strange-"

"Enough!" Vaati strode the short length across the room, practically storming her way. She chewed on her breakfast as he came to a stop, shoulders tense, eyes red as a low flame. Had he no witnesses, had he nothing to lose whatsoever, Ruuya had the distinct feeling he might have done something more. As it was, she swallowed her food, and stared back, wiping away how she felt as best she could.

It was a moment. Maybe more. By the number of teeth she could see, he was thinking.

He knew he had lost.

Vaati turned, his cape flaring, and leveled his blazing gaze on the other two occupants. "This does not leave my home," he hissed, "do you understand me? If you wish for your lives to be carefree and frivolous as they are now, you will not utter a single word about what you have heard here today. Otherwise-"

"Gotcha."

"Hm."

"- I will kill you both."

Stillness fell, an oppressive thing broken only by the wind mage's harsh, shifting gaze. Nan cocked her head, as if considering the leveled threat.

She got the eerie feeling that Bazz was unphased by the outburst, however.

Before anyone could speak up, Vaati took a deep breath, and visibly composed himself. "My powers are not gone," he said derisively. "I merely choose not to use them."

"Then prove it," Nan pressed, hand on her hip. "You keep goin' on and on about all the amazing things you can do, but you never do any of them. So go ahead, kill me with your wind magic."

Vaati seethed, teeth bared and hands clenching and unclenching. "Know your place, you little cretin. I am the great and powerful-!"

"-blowhard, yeah, I know."

Light flickered in her periphery. Ruuya flitted her gaze to the source, curious, and she gasped. Wisps the color of the sky as the world fell asleep wreathed his wrists. They were as clouds or a fog, floating above his skin, although the voe didn't seem to notice them at all.

"Watch your tongue," he said, an edge of danger in his words, "or you will find talking a difficult feat in the very near future."

Nan crossed her arms, nonplussed. Ruuya rolled her eyes, and sighed. They had things to do today. "Give it up, Vaati. They know. A curse blocks your magic, right?"

The mage whirled around. "How did you-"

"I can read," she replied dryly. If he wanted to continue these shenanigans...pretending to believe she hadn't known all this time to save face in front of Nan and Bazz...fine. She didn't mind. "You have all those old books piled around and all of them have to do with magic and curses of some kind. Plus…" She pointed a finger and made circles in the air, the red wisps fading even as Vaati looked down at them.

Ruuya hadn't thought Vaati could look so pale and red-faced at the same time, but he managed it somehow.

In a fluid motion, he withdrew his hands into his cloak, out of sight of prying eyes. "Not. A word," he hissed through clenched teeth.

Ruuya nodded. What would she have to gain from telling his secret? Windfall was destabilized enough already as is. Throwing oil onto the fire wouldn't help matters.

Who was she to destroy the last lingering thread of hope these people had? Alysse would not want that.

Bazz gave a short nod, and Nan shrugged.

It seemed they both understood that keeping this information to themselves was for the best, even Nan.

"Now, if you two are quite done…" Bazz let the words hang in the air. Ruuya took a large step back from Vaati. When had she gotten so close? "We may get back to the problem at hand. Lord Vaati, you know more about sages than either Ruuya or I. If Nan has inherited her mother's talents as you imply…"

Vaati visibly composed himself, head held high, back straight. "It always goes to the first born."

"Then what do I do?" Nan asked. "I've known the truth for a few years now, she isn't...wasn't…" The girl swallowed, wiping back tears. "Are you sure it went to me and not…?"

Ruuya gasped a little. Nan had known this whole time? She...wasn't sure what to make of that.

Sometimes, this kid still surprised her.

"Unless your real mother had another child first, it should be yours by birthright."

"Alysse is my real mother," Nan declared. Honesty and fire alight in her rage, she smacked one of the tin plates on the table with her fist. A few sparks like small fireflies fluttered forth. "Just because she lied to protect me. Just because she would do so again if it meant keeping me...firm and happy and everything despite our circumstances. I never knew that other woman. She doesn't matter to me."

Oh Nan…

"Good. Good." Vaati snaked his fingers together in front of his chin from under his cloak, the red wisps now gone. "Did you sense that?" He glanced first at Bazz, then at Ruuya.

"I saw a few sparks?"

"Agreed."

"Bah." He waved a dismissive hand at them. "You both need to work on fine-tuning your magical senses." Then he flashed a conniving grin at Nan. "It also confirms my suspicions. You, like your grandmother before you, are the Sage of Light."

Nan eyebrows rose. "Nah uh," she said, backing away and shaking her head, "you're wrong. I'm not smart enough for that type of thing. Sure, Maa was, but I'm just Nan."

The grin upon the ancient voe's face sharpened with menace. "Perhaps," he agreed. Something inside Ruuya twisted. "It's a hereditary rank not a mark of intellect, considering that the Fire Sages are always those rock eaters." He spat that last word out in disgust. "Regardless, you are exactly what I need to save my village."

"Vaati," Ruuya all but growled. She knew precisely what he planned to do. Trick her, then use her, and...and worse of all...take her in. Ruuya could lose her position. Lose everything because...

Nan nodded once. "I'll help you, but on one condition."

"Humph. And I thought you were a goodie-"

"Don't tell anyone I can do...am this." She pointed to herself with her half-eaten pastry. "I don't want to be a sage. I want to be a knight." At these words, Ruuya drew in a breath. She whispered a prayer of thanks for Nan's unwavering stubbornness. "I'll finish this spell to help Windfall, but magic doesn't interest me."

"Naneth," Bazz began, as though to reprimand her, then the girl gave him a glare worthy of her mother. "Destiny does not always permit us such choices…Vaati is...certainly a knowledgeable teacher…"

She shrugged. "Don't care," she said. "Destiny took maa. I'm through with it."

Vaati's face fell for a moment, like a man realizing that his most prized possession was nothing more than a goblet made of tin, not silver. Then, as quickly as he could, he covered his disappointment with a nod. "Then you'll give me the credit?"

"Yeah," Nan agreed. "How do I use this?" She picked up the staff.

Vaati stood. "Follow me."

The four left the potion shop and went out into town. Both street and building were covered in bubbling sludge, a few pools sprouted unblinking eyeballs that watched them pass, while some rivulets running down streets and up walls held stalks that stared, unceasingly. She went to reach for her bow when they encountered the first set, but found her quiver empty and her weapon elsewhere, no doubt still back at the shop. Bazz shook his head, a signal to move on, not fight. There wouldn't have been enough arrows to clear the town anyways, and regardless, that would not cure the ill of their plight.

At last, Vaati led them to the statue of Flow at the center of town surrounded by a cluster of silken white flowers shaped like wide, upturned bells with radiant blue on the inside of each blossom. Silent Princess, she had heard them called, and even in the midst of such terrible blight, they, the statue, and the mirror were clear of all malice, as though the poison could not stand its light.

Place, she thought, matters, too. Though Vaati had not said such. Flow had come to that ancient dias at the center of the Village of Outcasts to perform her spell, forcing open the way between worlds once more and sacrificing her life. Place and memory. The tale mattered, too.

"Speak here that which was written on the rod, and…" He turned to Ruuya, arm stretched out hesitantly, and snapped, "What is it?"

"Will she…will what happened to Flow happen to her?"

Not even the whisper of wind reached their ears in that sacred space.

"It should not," came the reply, the half-promise and uncertainty made her shiver. Made her want to wrestle the staff free from Nan's hands and run, yet they were too late. "But what choice do I have? If we let it linger, all of us will die."

"But I could…"

"You barely have an ounce of talent." He turned from her. "Naneth."

"Wait!" She rested a hand on the staff. "Why not together? Nan knows nothing of magic, and like you said…"

"Water and light are more powerful than either alone," Bazz said. "And fire too, like that of the scorching desert sun."

The old mage tapped his foot. "That could have worked, if you had the materials to make a bond, but there are no fairies in all of Windfall, or a fountain for miles around," he said. "Had I more time and materials, then perhaps I could have found one. As you are now, however…"

Without a word, Bazz reached into his bag and withdrew a bottle. A faint pink glow emanated from within, focused into a small ball.

Ruuya blinked, then tilted her head. "The...weird bug?" The thing rested at the bottom of its glass prison, no longer fluttering as it once had. The wings moved gently to and fro, but otherwise it showed no sign of life.

Was it dying? What did it even eat?

"This, Ruuya," Bazz said, fighting down the edges of his mouth, "is a very bored healing fairy."

Vaati stared, bewildered, as if the world had been flipped on its side. "Where in hell did you find that?"

"I believe that is a question for another time, my lord," the Zora replied. She would have to thank him later, and if Vaati ever did ask, dodge the question then. "You can thank your assistant." Shit. "Sometimes the fae can be found in the most...unusual locations, as I am sure you know."

"Yes," Vaati said tersely. He readjusted his cape to enclose him more fully from the morning cold. "Rather inconvenient ones. Now, hurry up and complete the ritual! You two" -a hand emerged from the folds of his fancy garment to point at them-"hold the staff together and recite the spell before this malice spreads any further! You!" His burning glare landed on Bazz. "Release the fairy above the staff as they begin chanting. Too soon, and it will try to heal them. Too late, and the effect will not bind."

The Zora flattened his lips. "As you say, my Lord," he replied dryly.

Nan wriggled her nose, scrunching up her face. "That's it?"

"Yes," the mage hissed. "That is it. No fancy dances or handwaving or whatever it is you think magic is."

"Come on, Nan," Ruuya said quietly. She already had the staff grasped near the top, leaving the inscription clear below her hand. She knew the words by rote, having either repeated them to herself or out loud while carving. The aspiring knight in-training, however, hadn't the slightest idea of what that was.

"Okay," she assented. She wrapped a hand around the middle. Ruuya held back the urge to cringe at the obstruction of a line.

"It reads top to bottom," she instructed. "Make sure you know the words you're covering up."

Nan briefly let go to read the inscription. The lifeline of the villagers seemed to crumble with every second she was silent. A not long moment, perhaps only for a heartbeat, though it gripped Ruuya's heart all the same. "Yeah," Nan nodded. "I got it."

"Right, then," said Bazz. He loosened the stopper in the bottle. The fairy inside fluttered up several inches. "Count to three and we'll begin. I'll tap my flipper in time with the beat. Remember to let the last note of each line carry for three taps each."

Ruuya tilted her head, face written over with confusion. "You know the rhythm?"

Despite the situation, the Zora smiled wryly. "It's hard not to, with how you kept humming last night."

"Ah." Ruuya averted her gaze. Was the sapphire shining brighter? "Right."

As if anticipating Vaati to growl out a demand to get on with it, Bazz began tapping his flipper. It was a simple measure, a bit quick in tempo.

The memories of tambourines in her head, Ruuya took a deep breath, and counted. "One...two...three."

The fairy was released, and with a slightly shaky start, their voices filled the air with a legacy built upon flickering hope. A village, a town made of once-strangers that came together under a woman's firm guidance; first one, then another, revealing silver linings in grey skies and letting the deepest dreams for freedom to take wing. A town, a village, a family forged by the fires of adversity, guided by a Sage through uncertainty, now praying for a holy cleansing in the name of the fallen light.

Under her fingers, Ruuya could feel the thrum of magic. It built within her chest and the staff, every word seemingly swept away into the roaring fire. Purple light pulsed from the sapphire nearly in time with her heartbeat. It radiated strength and warmth.

Then, rays of azure light exploded forth. The strength inside of her slipped away, pulled through the thrumming wood, cascading the town in waves of caressing warmth. She saw Windfall through a lens of gold and blue, heavenly hues of life. Then flame, green and sacred, burst forth, like the flare of a new sunrise.

For a moment, a purple haze rose from the remnants of dissolving malice, and then, as the waves of colors faded, was burned up in the midday sun.

The world was still for a breath. Then another. The salty scent of the ocean wafted through, cleansing the town of the lingering stench of decay.

Heavy raindrops, cold and tinged with salt, fell from a yet bright sky. Ruuya lifted her head, and let out a small gasp. A sunshower. Light. Water. Fire. The sign of the Three.

Somewhere behind her, a squeaky door opened tentatively, and murmurs, like weeds, grew. The village, reborn, came out to a new spring, and praised Vaati as hero and king.

The sun was bright. The rain, cold. But all Ruuya felt was nothing. Empty. Void. As desolate as the desert sands far out in the wastes. She had no peace here.

And time, ever ticking, carried on.

End of Part 2